Joanna Connor 4801 South Indiana Avenue album review by Chris High
Publisher: Keeping The Blues Alive Records
Joanna Connor’s new album “4801 South Indiana Avenue” is released by KTBA Records on February 26th via
www.jbonamassa.com/albums/2021/joannaconnor/4801
Queen of the Blues is an often overused and misappropriated epithet. In the case of Chicago-based slide guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter Joanna Connor, with her fourteenth – yes, FOURTEENTH – album, 4801 South Indiana Avenue, the moniker may well be understated.
Produced by Joe Bonamassa in Nashville, Joanna Connor has assembled a fabulously crafted, deliciously delivered and sumptuously sublime package of ten Blues bulldozers that are one hundred per cent guaranteed to satisfy.
Opening up with the high voltage Destination and closing with the sexy, sassy It’s My Time, what lies in between illustrates perfectly and precisely why Joanna Connor is so revered. The subtlety and edginess with which she manages to simultaneously guide then raise the listener’s emotional investment to the next level is quite simply mesmerising. Slide, rhythm, lead … it makes no difference, each incarnation of the guitar is delivered with a dexterity only available to the masters of their craft.
Trouble, Trouble is old-school Blues at its best. A backdrop mix of guitar, keys, horns, bass and drums that sweats poise, its finest attribute arrives in the shape of the barbed, gutsy vocals of Joanna Connor letting loose.
Pain infused, hope imbibed and steeped in a stew of rich, soul-eviscerating angst, this is the track of the album, although not by much. Indeed, any one of its nine cohabiters could waltz – or jive, possibly – away with that particular title.
In contrast I Feel So Good is so riddled with ‘Doing Just Fine, Thank You Very Much’, it should come with a warning attached. If ever there was a song sure to have you up out the chair, swaying and dancing and clapping along then, thanks to Connor’s infectious vibes, this is surely it.
All in all, and although only five weeks in, 4801 Indiana Avenue is – or certainly should be – already in the running for Blues Album of the Year. 2021, if there is any justice. A collection of Damn Hot Blues that are sure to lift the soul, while whetting the appetite of being able to, once more, see each and every one of these magnificent songs performed live.
Absolute enchantment, delivered by the Queen of the Blues Guitar herself.
We have an interview with the lady herself coming soon..
